Untrustworthy Identity Parade.

[Guest]

I am wondering by what mechanism Windows Media Player purports to identify a (physical) CD when you play it.

I've never worried about this feature, assuming it only works for pop music anyway, but this morning I played a charity shop find of Reger Chamber Works on a cheap Orbis CD (Suites 1 and 2 for Solo 'Cello and a Sonata for 'Cello and Piano) and WMP decided it was Volume One of Reger's Chamber Music on MDG, which contains two String Quartets and a String Trio. It illustrated the cover of the latter, and also labelled the tracks as if they came from it, with their tempo markings.

I thought these identifications were based on exact track numbers and timings, as was used to expose the Hatto scandal, but although both these CDs have eleven tracks, the individual and overall timings are hardly close:

(Orbis - MDG)

3:18 - 10:22
6:10 - 2:52
3:56 - 6:45
6:10 - 5:56
5:04 - 7:03
5:16 - 5:52
4:16 - 6:45
10:37 - 7:50
4:34 - 7:45
7:56 - 2:06
9:04 - 6:24

66:30 - 69:40

About the only things it got right were the number of tracks and Reger!

[rauschwerk]

It searches a database such as Gracenote. Mostly the results are ok but quirks do crop up in my experience.

[Old Grumpy]

I recently attended one of Alison Balsom's concerts and bought the "Paris" CD from the "merchandise" table. I played it, no problem on my CD player. The next day a colleague who had also been at the gig came in and asked me if my CD also brought up track listings in Asian (probably Japanese) characters - I tried it in the computer and sure enough it did!

We contacted AB's management who in turn contacted Warner - apparently WM will identify the tracks in Japanese on these discs, but in iTunes the track listings are in English. Doesn't worry me as I don't use a computer to play my physical CDs anyway.

OG

[Frances_iom]

I am wondering by what mechanism Windows Media Player purports to identify a (physical) CD when you play it.

...

About the only things it got right were the number of tracks and Reger!

the search is based on a hash of the track times + number of tracks - there is always the possibility of two different CD timings hashing to the same value which is used to index the entry in a database - as seen in other posting some newer CDs now embed a datatrack identifying the several tracks

[Don Petter]

the search is based on a hash of the track times + number of tracks - there is always the possibility of two different CD timings hashing to the same value which is used to index the entry in a database - as seen in other posting some newer CDs now embed a datatrack identifying the several tracks

Sounds a feasible explanation. Does that mean it was pure coincidence that it came up with another Reger (and chamber) CD?

[Frances_iom]

Sounds a feasible explanation. Does that mean it was pure coincidence that it came up with another Reger (and chamber) CD?

in this case as both Reger and chamber works I suspect entry problems (probably some later post entry editing) but you can see multiple hashes as can get two different cds under differeing categories - it is possible that WMP uses a soft match as it seems quite a number of the early entries into what became Gracenotes actually used an incorrect calculation of the hash

[Don Petter]

in this case as both Reger and chamber works I suspect entry problems (probably some later post entry editing) but you can see multiple hashes as can get two different cds under differeing categories - it is possible that WMP uses a soft match as it seems quite a number of the early entries into what became Gracenotes actually used an incorrect calculation of the hash

Yes, it does seem some sort of fuzzy match is going on, perhaps as a last resort?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I have exactly this ORBIS CD ("The Classical Collection: Reger inspired chamberworks") - I have never before played it via my computer - and lo! My copy has exactly the same incorrect identification!


It's a very good disc, though - much better than others in this series.

[Don Petter]

I have exactly this ORBIS CD ("The Classical Collection: Reger inspired chamberworks") - I have never before played it via my computer - and lo! My copy has exactly the same incorrect identification!


It's a very good disc, though - much better than others in this series.

I enjoyed it very much, and am glad you did.

I guess they mean that Bach was his inspiration, rather the works being generally held to be 'inspired' per se?

[Don Petter]

I have exactly this ORBIS CD ("The Classical Collection: Reger inspired chamberworks") - I have never before played it via my computer - and lo! My copy has exactly the same incorrect identification!


It's a very good disc, though - much better than others in this series.

A further anomaly. I am just playing an old radio recording of 'I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue' from 2003 which I found somewhere on line, and it has come up with the title and cover art for the Everly Brothers: Greatest Love Songs, Volume One.

I think WMP is somewhat sick. (I recently updated to WMP 11, and never noticed these effects in the past. Perhaps the new version is trying to be over-helpful.)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I guess they mean that Bach was his inspiration, rather the works being generally held to be 'inspired' per se?

Oh, that's a nice idea - I hadn't thought of it in those terms.